Charlie Barber Professor

Charlie Barber

Profile

Ph.D., Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, 1989

Professor Barber’s area of specialization is the history of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine art, with a particular focus on the history and theory of the icon. He has also worked extensively on Byzantine aesthetics and intellectual history and with Byzantine manuscripts. He has written and edited a number of books. These include two studies of the contested status of the icon in Byzantium: Figure and Likeness: On the Limits of Representation in Byzantine Iconoclasm (2002) and Contesting the Logic of Painting: Art and Understanding in Eleventh-Century Byzantium (2007). Current and future research will lead to books that examine the status of the icon in the 14th and 16th centuries.

In addition to presenting papers at numerous domestic and international conferences and symposia, Professor Barber has co-organized several interdisciplinary workshops on Byzantine intellectual history. These have resulted in such publications as Reading Michael Psellos (2006) and Medieval Greek Commentaries on the Nicomachean Ethics (2009). Professor Barber also currently serves as the president of the United States National Committee for Byzantine Studies.

Teaching Interests

Professor Barber teaches undergraduate lecture courses on all aspects of Early Christian, Byzantine, and Post-Byzantine art. Undergraduate and graduate seminars focus on current conversations in the field and will emphasize conceptual issues.

Current Research

Professor Barber is currently at work on a book that examines the intellectual grounds of late-16th-century Cretan painting, particularly the work of Michael Damaskinos, George Klontzas, and Domenikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco). He is also overseeing a multivolume publication of translations of sources for the study of Byzantine art and aesthetics.

Selected Publications

Michael Psellos on Literature and Art: A Byzantine Perspective on Aesthetics. Co-edited with Stratis Papaioannou. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2017.